Madeleine Dring (1923-1977)
Through the Centuries: Songs
Kitty Whately (mezzo-soprano)
Julius Drake (piano)
rec. 2025, Potton Hall, Dunwich, UK
Chandos CHAN20390 [63]
Following on from Nicholas Daniel’s excellent survey of the complete oboe music, Chandos now offer a collection of songs by Madeleine Dring sung by mezzo Kitty Whately accompanied by the ever-excellent Julius Drake. Dring was a remarkably talented all-rounder, entering the Royal College aged just nine studying violin, she soon became a piano major as well as taking composition lessons from Herbert Howells. Her theatrical family background, as well as opportunities afforded by World War II, meant she gravitated towards the theatre as both musician and actress. Lewis Foreman’s informative liner note mentions some two dozen scores written for the BBC as well as music for revues and plays in London’s West End. Foreman cites Donald Swan and Joyce Grenfell as similar musical entertainers in a genre/format that has all but vanished from contemporary theatre. Dring continued to be active until her sudden tragic death from a brain aneurysm aged just 53. Alongside witty revue songs, Dring wrote more serious vocal works and it is those that are mainly focussed on in this new recital. These were also the songs that were published by the indefatigable John Bishop at Thames Publishing who after Dring’s death produced no less than six volumes of songs. Thames were a driving force behind the publication of books and music of many neglected British composers with Havergal Brian, Bridge, Howells, Warlock and Moeran to name a handful of beneficiaries of Bishop’s wide-ranging passions.
The bulk of the songs included here are drawn from those Thames collections. Dring was a famously fluent composer able to work effectively to tight and demanding deadlines. Perhaps these ‘serious’ songs seek to redress the balance with the lighter/theatre songs where topic and topicality are more important than recognising the composer’s own voice and style. I was quite surprised to realise that this is by no means the first recording to devote itself to Dring’s songs. Back in 1982 Meridian released a LP recital by Robert Tear accompanied by Phillip Ledger (four songs common to both collections). The American label Cambria Master Recordings seem to have released two collections since 2013 of which the earlier 2 disc set includes all of the songs on this new Chandos disc except for the Cole Porter arrangement which appears on the companion disc “Cabaret Songs of Madeleine Dring”. I have not heard any of those alternatives complete except for dipping into Spotify samples of the Cambria collections. Given her skill at writing pithy witty songs, it is no surprise that individual offerings appear in collections and recitals such as Hyperion’s “In Praise of Women” (Anthony Rolfe-Johnson and Graham Johnson) and “Blah, Blah, Blah” (Sarah Walker and Roger Vignoles) and many others on multiple labels.
Many of the twenty songs on this disc are marked “date uncertain” which reflects the slightly chaotic way in which Dring catalogued her own work. Not that it is vital to know, but certainly for the listener new to this repertoire it is useful to be able to create a timeline or sense of emerging creative voice. Perhaps the most striking and individual group here is the ‘late’ – 1976 – set titled Four Night Songs. Here Dring set words by Michael Armstrong, a painter, poet and hotelier(!) who ran an establishment on the Channel Islands. The poems are full of images of love and separation and while hardly the profoundest meditations they do prompt from Dring a more impressionistic and serious group of settings. The bulk of the texts chosen for this disc are by 16th – 18th Century poets with Dryden and Shakespeare the most immediately famous names and familiar words. Kitty Whately has made several recordings for Chandos across a range of repertoire from Strauss to Sullivan and she sings with dynamic authority and at times a near-operatic intensity. She favours a focussed tone and fast but well-controlled vibrato. This works well in songs such as Love is a sickness that opens the disc or Dryden’s I feed a flame with the latter prompting Dring to write a flamboyant piano accompaniment brilliantly dispatched by Julius Drake. Part of Dring’s skill is present in the ‘simpler’ settings finding little musical nuances that point the text with illustrative (theatrical?) detail; echoing piano phrases in Echoes and cascading arpeggiated figurations in Weep you no more, sad fountains are two examples amongst many. I feed a flame is the third of a set of four songs collectively called Love and Time which are dated as ‘the 1970’s’ which is another impressive mini cycle. Dring finds an effective balance between words that are centuries old but on timeless subjects of passion and young love. When required Whately is very good at pulling back her powerful voice while keeping the emotional intensity focused. The three selections from the Seven Shakespeare Songs neatly showcase Dring’s stylistic range even when setting such familiar texts. The Cuckoo (from Love’s Labour’s Lost) finds a modern take on latter-day lute song with obvious birdsong imitative writing. Take o take those lips away (Measure for Measure) is a model of a simple, direct yet passionate setting. It was a Lover (As You Like It) manages to become a Cabaret Song with some bluesy harmonies and playful vocal writing.
All in all, this is a very appealing and attractive showcase for the considerable song-writing talents of Madeleine Dring. Clearly, by not including any of her show and cabaret songs a major and important facet of her work is not presented here. That said, I am not sure that that style would wholly suit Kitty Whately. The only performance that left me underwhelmed was Dring’s arrangement of Cole Porter’s In the still of the night. The arrangement is interesting and the song itself a great one. The ‘problem’ is that Porter’s sheer melodic skill rather dwarves Dring’s and Whately oversings with her vocal style simply too ‘big’. As mentioned, this song appears on the Cambria Cabaret Songs of Madeleine Dring’ collection. Their mezzo is Wanda Brister (who also co-authored the only Dring biography titled “Madeleine Dring – Lady Composer”) who has a much lighter voice. She does not have a fraction of Whately’s technique, vocal security or power and pianist Courtney Kenny (who worked with Dring in the theatre in the 50’s) plays on a clattery old piano, but the feeling of this song is much better/lighter – and not just because she takes a flowing 3:00 to Whately’s too earnest 4:07. Brister is rather good – with the same allowances for technique and honky-tonk accompaniment – in the genuinely witty songs such as Don’t Play Your Sonata Tonight, Mr. Humphries, I’ve Found the Proms and the sly Humanity’s gift to the stage. Writing songs that actually are funny is skill in its own right and one that Dring clearly possessed.
This has an extensive English-only booklet (full song texts included) combining useful biographical material and music analysis alongside several really interesting archive photographs of Dring the actress. All in all, this is another fine Chandos release offering a valuable, well performed and beautifully recorded, if partial, overview of Madeleine Dring’s considerable skill as a song writer.
Nick Barnard
Previous review: Gary Higginson
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Contents
Love is a sickness
Echoes
Encouragements to a Lover
The Enchantment
Melisande
My true-love hath my heart (1944)
Love and Time (1970’s)
Weep you no more sad fountains
From Seven Shakespeare Songs (published 1992)
The Faithless Lover
Four Night Songs (1976)
In the Still of the Night
